Developers are currently taking receipt of a new PlayStation 4 dev kit, VG247 has been told today, with a final version slated to appear in January. Yes, it’ll have Blu-ray. No, it isn’t being made in Japan.

Multiple sources have confirmed to VG247 today that a new version of the Orbis kit is now shipping to developers, and that it’s housed in a normal PC case.

There are to be four versions of the dev kit, we were told. A previous version was essentially just a graphics card. The version shipping now is a “modified PC,” and the third version, appearing in January, will be close to final spec. A final version will be delivered to developers “next summer”.

Some US developers attended a “disclosure meeting” at Sony’s offices this week, with a further meeting to take place in the coming weeks. The purpose of the meeting is for Sony to tell studios what the machine is designed to do, to detail hardware and to show a set of presentations.

Our source told us that Sony is only calling the machine Orbis, and is not using the words “PlayStation 4″ in these meetings at all.

Orbis, we were told today, is based on the AMD’s A10 APU series. An APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) is a combined CPU and GPU.

PS4′s APU was described today as a “derivative” of existing A10 hardware. The hardware is “based on A10 system and base platform”.

The “ultimate goal” for the hardware, we were told, is for it to be able to run 1080p60 games in 3D with “no problem,” to create a machine that’s powerful enough for “today and tomorrow’s market”.

The dev kits have “either 8Gb or 16Gb of RAM. Deduce from that what you will.”

The hardware is not being made in Japan, it was said.

When asked if PS4 will have an optical drive, specifically Blu-ray, our source responded: “Of course it has.” We’ve been told the hard drive will be 256Gb “as standard,” but it’s not clear if it’ll be a normal HDD or a solid state drive.

We were told that Sony’s aim with Orbis is to avoid problems involved in launching PS3 by creating something “very affordable” but that “isn’t a slouch”.

The machine has WiFi and Ethernet connectivity and HDMI out. Our source said the was “no difference” between PlayStation 3 and Orbis input/output.

The UI, however, has been revamped. It was said today that players will now be able to press the PS button mid-game and travel “anywhere” on the system. An example given was buying DLC from the PS Store mid-game then seamlessly returning to play.

“They’re trying to make it as fluid as possible,” our source said.

We were also told that the machine will be designed to accept system and product updates in the background, and that it’ll “always be standby mode”. When you set the console up, we were told, you’ll be asked if you want to allow background downloads. You can, of course, disallow them.

No details have been given on the pad as yet. Confirmation is expected this month.

Sounds good. I like how they're trying to make the experience as seamless as possible. Background downloads and being able to jump in and out of a game should be a standard feature for next-gen consoles.

I haven't been following news of the PS4 but are they going with just an APU? I assumed they'd use that alongside a more powerful GPU. I don't think an AMD A10 can run anything at "1080p60".

Sounds good. I like how they're trying to make the experience as seamless as possible. Background downloads and being able to jump in and out of a game should be a standard feature for next-gen consoles.

I haven't been following news of the PS4 but are they going with just an APU? I assumed they'd use that alongside a more powerful GPU. I don't think an AMD A10 can run anything at "1080p60".

I'm sure Angry Birds would run at 1080p60

Meh... 3D... I'd give 4K the priority to be honest ^^

Possibly it will do that, too though. Probably not at 60fps and 3D though.

1080p will be more than enough, considering that most of games that are out now are in 720p or lower resolution, mostly with 30fps. So transition to 1080p should be a big leap for consoles.
4K is still far, far away, and just like PS3, games will be designed to run at 1080p and then just upscaled to whatever resolution.

AMD A10 APU have much more powerful GPU than Xbox360 and PS3 combined. And it's not like they will just put off-the-shelf product in PS4, they'll probably have some modifications to make it better at running games.

And it's hard to expect from any side that they will use some expensive parts, Sony specially can't afford to loose big money by selling hardware much lower than manufacturing costs.

I think it's smart going with a GPU/APU combo, developers can offload stuff like physics and ambient occlusion to the APU instead of relying on the SPUs/GPU like the PS3, and because its an x86 CPU it also means that it should be far easier to code for than the custom CELL cpu, we might even start to see more non-multiplatform ports for the PC. It might actually be affordable this time around.

The claims this time around seem doable, the PS3 was claimed to be able to do 2x 1080p 120HZ outputs at the same time and all sorts of other nonsense, though I think 1080p30 is more realistic with all the graphics turned up.

As for the '...why no 4K' nonsense thats bound to crop up, most PCs cant do 4K gaming without 2 or 3 SLI/Crossfire GPUs what makes you think a $500~ home console is going to be able to push that many pixels. By the time 4K TV are the norm we will be nearing the end of PS4 lifespan.

1080p will be more than enough, considering that most of games that are out now are in 720p or lower resolution, mostly with 30fps. So transition to 1080p should be a big leap for consoles.4K is still far, far away, and just like PS3, games will be designed to run at 1080p and then just upscaled to whatever resolution.

AMD A10 APU have much more powerful GPU than Xbox360 and PS3 combined. And it's not like they will just put off-the-shelf product in PS4, they'll probably have some modifications to make it better at running games.

And it's hard to expect from any side that they will use some expensive parts, Sony specially can't afford to loose big money by selling hardware much lower than manufacturing costs.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. After all, with the ps3 sony took a geforce 7800 and actually made it worse than its desktop equivalent.